koontz did a great job of tracking everything down and putting this together.

-agentcom]

Concise description: Give a brief outline of just what being a moderator means, perhaps in the forum, perhaps as part of the instructions.

Specifics: List some basics of what being a mod entails and what they do.

For example:

How much time is required of a mod?

Are mods "overall mods" or are their duties limited to specific forums, etc.? (perhaps with the exception for "extremes" -- such as any mod who happens to see porn might be able to shut the thread down/edit it, but generally only forum mods moderate forums)

Exactly what can and cannot a mod do. For example, I believe mods can issue short bans, but usually longer ones have to go by administration.

This will improve the following aspects of the site:It will just offer clarity.

I see mods often explaining their limits, etc. Some people obviously just don't care. They are like toddlers who get told "no" and plain don't care about reasons. Still, a good many DO care. Just the fact that moderators are volunteers is not something people know at first.

Last edited by agentcom on Mon Feb 11, 2013 11:18 am, edited 4 times in total.
Reason:Added link to the list of moderator responsibilities created for this suggestion

On the Forum Listing Page, it shows what groups can moderate which forum---that is essentially the extent of their power. If you are interested in a group, you can click on the group, or when visiting a mod profile search their usergroups for the Moderation group they are in.

As for explaining more specifics of time, and what it entails, you can check out what is written in the Community Guidelines first post:

The first post doesn't state how long bans moderators can issue and it doesn't state how much time (if any time at all, or merely a resemblance of activity) mods are required (on average) to put in. The first post in the guidelines only answers the second question.

It also doesn't say who gets paid for their work, I understand only "the Reds" (that would include you, Andy) get any sort of salary, but I can't recall any official statement regarding this. I'm not asking how much you're paid, still, I think it would be a good thing to know who actually represents Salamander Software and Conquerclub and who is "merely" volunteering to help moderate (let's hope they don't take that to mean "police") the forum community.

saxitoxin wrote:Your position is more complex than the federal tax code. As soon as I think I understand it, I find another index of cross-references, exceptions and amendments I have to apply.

My god i am beggining to feel sorry for andy and co. You people are never happy, they listen to everything suggested and try their best to deal with it but still they get harrassed on every front. Sure they make plenty of mistakes *cough* mpjh *cough* but they are human and they can't please everyone, deal with it.

It's hard to put down a required time for Volunteers in Team CC---not all areas require the same amount. The Foundry, Tournaments, Clans, Society, etc, all probably do not require the same amount of activity. We also do not require any "office hours"---or times where moderators schedule activity times, since they are volunteering.

Administrators have specific Office Hours, though I do not believe these are listed in the public. However, if you see one of us online for more than a minute or two and are not just taking turns, good chance that we are in our specific Office Hours.

Moderators, as mentioned in the Community Guidelines, can only issue Warnings and small vacations. Administrators are the only members of Team CC that can issue longer vacations.================

If there are ways we can make things clearer, let us know and we'll do our best to accommodate providing that we can.

The only unclear part about duties is what "tools" entail. That is, I believe you mean they can lock and edit threads (?) but maybe not. Knowing that will help alleviate some inappropriate requests.

As for time required, Even though there is some variation, I think a range of times might be helpful. I don't think the exact time for each forum matters as much as just an overall idea. My main reason for suggesting this is that I don't think people realize how much time mods put in. I think if they did, they might be more appreciative.

Similarly, saying "most mods are volunteers" is not the same as saying "everyone not red is a volunteer." Again, the clarity will just help a little in alleviating complaints, I believe.

Its clear to me that not all mods rule on the same guidlines. Take for instance Long island map in foundry and gangs of toronto map. Longisland map had no update for 2 months finally moved to recyle or vacation. gangs of toronto had an update in july and was moved today to recyle or vacy.. Is there a set time of when these maps are to be moved ? Or does favortism and unjustly rules apply ?

danfrank wrote:Its clear to me that not all mods rule on the same guidlines. Take for instance Long island map in foundry and gangs of toronto map. Longisland map had no update for 2 months finally moved to recyle or vacation. gangs of toronto had an update in july and was moved today to recyle or vacy.. Is there a set time of when these maps are to be moved ? Or does favortism and unjustly rules apply ?

Specific Regulations, like those in the Foundry, are dealt with by the in house Moderators---the Cartographers. They often express their regulations in a sticky or announcement located at the top of the forum.

It also could be that perhaps no one made aware that Long Island hadn't had an update for so long until recently. The Cartographers, try as they may, only have so many eyes---I know!

From what I remember from the Foundry, as Foundry Foreman, maps that go inactive without an update (a real update, not just posting) for 1 Month+ usually get removed to the Bin or are Vacationed there, but you should clarify this with iancanton, thenobodies80, or MrBenn, who is the current Foundry Foreman.

PLAYER57832 wrote:

AndyDufresne wrote:So you'd like to see added that Mods can Lock, Merge, Split, Move, Edit?

Yes please.

I'll look into revising the Guidelines and updating them a little tomorrow.

danfrank wrote:Its clear to me that not all mods rule on the same guidlines. Take for instance Long island map in foundry and gangs of toronto map. Longisland map had no update for 2 months finally moved to recyle or vacation. gangs of toronto had an update in july and was moved today to recyle or vacy.. Is there a set time of when these maps are to be moved ? Or does favortism and unjustly rules apply ?

Specific Regulations, like those in the Foundry, are dealt with by the in house Moderators---the Cartographers. They often express their regulations in a sticky or announcement located at the top of the forum.

It also could be that perhaps no one made aware that Long Island hadn't had an update for so long until recently. The Cartographers, try as they may, only have so many eyes---I know!

From what I remember from the Foundry, as Foundry Foreman, maps that go inactive without an update (a real update, not just posting) for 1 Month+ usually get removed to the Bin or are Vacationed there, but you should clarify this with iancanton, thenobodies80, or MrBenn, who is the current Foundry Foreman.

PLAYER57832 wrote:

AndyDufresne wrote:So you'd like to see added that Mods can Lock, Merge, Split, Move, Edit?

Yes please.

I'll look into revising the Guidelines and updating them a little tomorrow.

pmchugh wrote:My god i am beggining to feel sorry for andy and co. You people are never happy, they listen to everything suggested and try their best to deal with it but still they get harrassed on every front. Sure they make plenty of mistakes *cough* mpjh *cough* but they are human and they can't please everyone, deal with it.

I am not criticizing the mods here. I figure if more people know what mods do a bit better and how much they work, they might get a little less flack.

I had an idea similar to this a while back, although it was scrapped because it wasn't thought to be very useful. If you could churn up some community support for this suggestion, I'll take another whack at it.

Althought I've nothing against having an additional field you should think that some volunteers are responsible/active in more than a single department. This would make not so simple to fill the field (or a bit confusing).Just to give 2 examples: I'm listed also into the Int'l mods where the responsabilities are different than in the foundry, koontz1973 is listed also into the Entertainment Team. You can find many others....

Personally I think that, in case of doubts, a PM to a Team Leader would make the trick without having to code anything.

I do NOT visit this site and I'm NOT Team CC anymore.All PMs are autobinned. If you need to contact me, you should already have a way to do it without using this site.Thanks to those who helped me through the years.

i think it is cumbersome to have a list of mods easily accessable that tells us something 'stupid' such as a made up location while forcing us to search out another list that provides the task distribution.

it should be all in the one, easy to access location. even if that means a little more work creating the backend.

greenoaks wrote:i think it is cumbersome to have a list of mods easily accessable that tells us something 'stupid' such as a made up location while forcing us to search out another list that provides the task distribution.

it should be all in the one, easy to access location. even if that means a little more work creating the backend.

This is true. I thought it was cumbersome before I was a mod and I still think it kind of is.

I suggested something similar to this before in the mod forum, but it wasn't quite the same...

AndyDufresne wrote:For some areas it makes pretty good sense: Clans, Tournaments, Foundry, and probably even Academy. Entertainment could also benefit, since it has a mishmash of Special Events and Newsletter.

--Andy

Tournaments and Foundry were the 2 that always got me thinking about this as it is difficult to find out who does what but extremely easily to find out who is in the department and how many posts they have made

this can be rectified 2 ways :-

1. a table that contains all mods, with a 'task responsibilty' column for each department. the individual department lists then source responsibilities (if relevant) from the relevant column. or

2. each department has their own table of mods & responsibilities and the mod list links to that.

This would be nice ... even if you gave the mods the ability to write their own (rather than having it formally defined). I know that I'm not a huge fan of being lumped in with the "globals" when my focus is fairly exclusively on Suggestions. Not that I mind handling questions from all takers, but a lot of the time, I simply end up directing them to the correct person to answer their question. I have a feeling (call it an educated guess) that we're using some default phpbb settings and there may or may not be something that does what you're looking for out there.

Why not make the list in general discussion and sticky the thread with all of the mods categories, names and colours in it. The we can all come along and post what we do there. That would seem to be a very simple thing to do without having to try and get changes made from higher ups.

koontz1973 wrote:Why not make the list in general discussion and sticky the thread with all of the mods categories, names and colours in it. The we can all come along and post what we do there. That would seem to be a very simple thing to do without having to try and get changes made from higher ups.

Not a bad idea. It's better to get the info out there in some form than not at all.

The one issue with a forum post of information is keeping things up-to-date, and who can do that sort of editing, or who would want to do that sort of editing.

phpBB does have a "custom profile field" feature, but right now I think any such fields would be made available to all users, not say not just Team CC. With a modification this could address the suggestion. Additionally, more profile fields for everyone could make profiles for informative and fun: